


The Fight for Truth

by shiverfawkes



Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Betrayal, Blood and Injury, Death Threats, Fighting, Identity Reveal, M/M, Major Character Injury, Panic Attack, Weapons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-20 04:22:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14252943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiverfawkes/pseuds/shiverfawkes
Summary: Things come apart so easily when they're held together with lies.





	The Fight for Truth

It was quiet, _too_ quiet.

That made him uneasy, so he did the daily round of checks. 

His door creaked a little as he stepped out into the hall, he shivered as the draft hit him head on, zipping up his hoodie, sweeping his hair out of his eyes.

Virgil walked, his sock covered feet padding against the floors ever so lightly, around the mindscape.

He could hear Roman singing from his room, muffled a tad by the soundproof walling Logan had gotten him for his birthday. He paused, leaning against the wall outside the other trait's room, listening. The sweet melodic tones in his voice, changing pitches with ease and he couldn't help but hum along quietly before heading off to check on the others.

The clacking of keyboard keys was all that could be heard from Logan's room, he was editing, and proofing and perfecting the next script, Virgil knew it. He spoke softly to himself, reading over the lines and still tapping his middle finger on his desk in the absence of typing, he could hear the faint rhythm against the mahogany. He smiled fondly at the door, before making his last stop. 

Patton's room was silent. That was strange and extremely eerie. The dad-like trait always seemed to be watching movies, or listening to the Beatles as he read his comics. It was unnerving to hear _nothing_ from him. Even his soft murmurs from his dreams usually made their way out the door. 

But no. Nothing. Just silence.

In an instant, flashes of past events clouded his mind and his heartbeat began to quicken it's pace. Images of the scars and the scales, the black and the yellow, the one ever piercing eye that had stared into his soul so many times.

That kept him in his place.

That kept him from escape.

Virgil took a swift breath in, he attempted to brace himself for the worst but he doubted it would matter. Before  a second thought could cross his mind he opened the door without warning and a strangled cry left his throat.

There Patton lay on the floor, his glasses smashed and shattered, the mug he'd obviously been drinking out of in the same state. His hand was mangled, slashed and haggard, his blood was slowly trickling onto the floor into a sticky puddle, deep red almost brown piercing the anxious traits eyes the longer he stared. Virgil could only drop to the floor beside him with tears in his eyes. He felt guilty, so fucking guilty that he hadn't been careful enough, that he hadn't seen it coming, that it even happened in the first place. 

He rolled the other side over, he was breathing, but his face was cut up slashes and jabs scattered throughout his skin, and the shadow of a bruise was forming on his cheek, the deep purple shining through, royal enough to match Virgil's hoodie. 

"What the fuck did he do to you, Pat." Virgil whispered quietly. 

He was stirring a little, and all Virgil could think to do was call the others. What if he'd gotten to them? Oh god then it would be even more of his fault, he should have warned them. 

"Logan! Roman!" He called, his voice straining and cracking at this point, as more tears began to fall.

A groan came from beside him. "H-Hey Kiddo, what'd you hit me for?" He turned his head back to Patton, who was slightly more awake now, his eyes barely open, squinting at the other in the absence of his glasses. 

Virgil could only let out a bitter laugh, gripping the other's non-injured hand tightly. "Deceit is back Patton. I haven't seen you since breakfast." His voice was soft, and his insides were screaming as he sad there, trembling, staring down at the sate of somebody he loved. Somebody who believed that he'd hurt them. 

He wasn't sure whether the state Patton was in, or the fact he believed Virgil would do this to him, hurt more. But both hurt a lot, and his heart was beating so fast at this point he wasn't sure it was healthy. 

Footsteps echoed down the hall, growing louder until the door opened with a slam. "Patton, my love! What fiends do I need to vanquish!?" Roman entered the room with his usual grandeur, Logan at his side, a look of panic on his face, he'd sprinted from what Virgil could tell.

"Is everything alri- Virgil?" Logan caught himself mid sentence when he noticed the situation. "But- But you were with me just now." A look of confusion came over his face, eyebrows furrowed as he pushed up his glasses.

Virgil shook his head, giving the other a look of sympathy. "That wasn't me Logan." The anxious trait's voice was soft, as he gestured to the side who lay before them. Logan's face paled at the blood, at the glasses and the mug, at the realisation of what this meant. 

Roman was the first to verbally acknowledge it. "He's back." His voice was barely a whisper. 

A laugh came from behind Virgil, and there he was, the snake himself, his usual attire had been altered, the bowler hat and cloak still present, along with the piercing black and yellow theme that had scarred the anxious trait for a lifetime. "Well, well, well? Isn't this sweet- Oh sorry," He laughed again as his form changed, the cloak baggy on him now, a hoodie, dark smudges appearing under his eyes. "Isn't this sweet?" He growled in Virgil's signature unamused tone, raising a hand to his face mockingly biting his thumb.

Virgil cringed, the same trick had been played on him several times over. Whether it was Patton, Logan or Roman, the three of them made him weak at the knees, and Deceit knew that.

He knew every little thing that made Virgil's stomach lurch, his hands start to quake, tears start to fall.

He knew exactly how to make him anxious and the anxious trait hated it.  

"How _dare_ you mock him!" Roman stood in front of Virgil, as he and Logan, helped Patton up. "That is no way to face your issues you beast!" He shouted, taking another step toward the snake, who backed away just as much, in an attempt at imitation. 

Deceit laughed, his form unchanging. "I thought you said you wouldn't shout at me, sir sing-a-lot? It d-doesn't help with my a-anxiety." He kept the tone, doing his best to stay accurate to Virgil as possible, even placing a stutter on his lips, a stutter that felt foreign on his tongue but familiar to the princes ears. Roman faltered, glancing behind him, trying to remind himself that the _real_ anxiety was behind him, helping Patton, like the real anxiety would be.

"I'm right here Roman, keep your cool." He spoke softly, helping Logan to bandage Patton's hand

He could only focus on the fact that Deceit had done that to one of his loves, so he took a breath, tightening his grip on the sword on his belt, he turned to face Deceit once more. "You don't have an anxious bone in your body you brute!" He wouldn't let himself be fooled again. 

"Roman, darling, somewhere a little more spacious might be helpful." Logan noted, standing up while Virgil handled Patton, nodding at the creative trait who took in a breath, closing his eyes. 

A pale light came over the five of them, as roman concentrated, furrowing his eyebrows, then suddenly everything was white, the ground they stood on and the vast space around them, almost blindingly.

Deceit was disorientated from the sudden change, falling to the floor, his façade flickering off him, the snake-face and yellow gloves on his figure once more, and he glared at the others, agitated even further than before. 

"This should do nicely. You remember your weapons?" Roman asked, drawing his sword from it's sheath, his fists tightening around the leather handle in anger. They hadn't had to do this since Thomas was a teenager, maybe ten years now it had been. He just hoped to whomever was listening that they hadn't forgotten. 

Logan nodded, summoning his bow, the blue stained wood appearing in his hand, his quiver at his side like a holster. "Virgil, are you fit to fight him?" The logical trait asked, turning to the others, Patton was standing now, having come to his senses, and he passed his spare pair of glasses to the moral side who took them gratefully. 

Virgil glanced up, after cocking his handguns, clicking the safety off and gripping them tightly, the cool metal familiar in his hands. "Let's take this bastard down." 

But before he could even turn around, he gasped, his eyes widened and brimming with tears, falling to the ground on his hands and knees, a spear lodged in his back, protruding through his chest. The pain seared up his spine and he could do no more than cry out in pain. He hadn't felt pain like that in a long time.

Patton screamed, Logan gasped, and Virgil writhed furiously trying to get it out, trying to cease the agony he'd been left in, but he was too much torment, too weak to even reach. 

That was it. That was all it took for Roman to lose it.

"You will pay for that,  _you will pay for that!_ " Roman yelled, running straight for Deceit, lunging at him with his sword, but he only smirked, summoning another spear, blocking the blade with the staff. All he could do was slash angrily, trying to jab and hack away at the fiend who'd hurt Virgil,  _their_ Virgil. He faced every block until he broke the wooden pole the Snake's spear, until it cracked and he toppled back, gripping his arm, now trickling blood, staining the black of his cloak.

He ran to help Virgil, as Logan studied the Snake's every move, his bow aimed in such a manner that the moment his fingers slipped, an arrow would drive its way straight through Deceit's skull.

The logical side was doing everything in his power to not listen to Virgil's screams of agony. Usually pulling out the weapon that caused the wound was the worst thing possible, but in their case it was the only way to begin healing. Those were the screams that woke him in the night, the cries that he soothed with calm words and gentle touches, the curses that remained only a memory now. 

Deceit made an effort to stand, he was chuckling now, shaking his head at Logan, who narrowed his eyes at the other. 

"As if you _care_. You have no emotions, you're nothing but a dictionary." He gave the logical side a smug smirk, folding his arms. 

Logan furrowed his eyebrows, knowing exactly what this fiend was trying to do to him. He was not about to let it work. "Incorrect _follis._ I'm learning." 

"You can't _learn_ to feel, face it, you're just an emotionless robot, imitating what you'll never have. Happiness, concern, _love_." His words stung. They stung terribly.

He couldn't breathe, his chest felt like it was caving in. "Falsehood." He whispered.  

Before he could stop it, his grip loosened, the arrow hurtled toward Deceit and his bow fell to the floor with a clatter, phasing from the mindscape as he gave up concentration on it. Deceit laughed once more, all that stupid bastard seemed to do was _laugh_. 

The arrow hit him in the palm, driving it's way through his hand, and he winced, pulling it out, examining the hole it had made with faux curiosity before he tossed the arrow back at Logan, like a dart. He knew he didn't have the reaction time to dodge it, so he threw up his arms to  cover his head and chest. He wasn't sure if they could be killed but he wasn't about to risk it. 

Thomas without _any_ of his aspects wasn't a functioning Thomas. 

The impact never came, and he was left unscathed. in front of him stood Patton his transparent turquoise tinted shield guarding them both, a look of concentration of his cut up face. Beside him, was Roman. He glanced behind them, and Virgil gave him a weak smile, he had Roman's sash wrapped round his torso, a deeper red seeping into the satin vermillion. as he sat on the ground, pressing his hand against the wound. 

When he turned round, Deceit was closer, too close for comfort, he summoned his bow once more. 

"Oh dear, Morality, you have to be kidding. A shield? Hasn't Virgil told you? You can't protect what will inevitably be damaged." His smirk cut through the moral trait, that snake eye piercing his soul. "You can't fight with a shield you childish fool."

"You look like more of a clown than me. Besides, you're part snake, hitting you would be animal cruelty." Patton spoke, not a waver of nervousness in his voice, he hadn't even broke a sweat. 

"Real mature." 

"Tell me, is your favourite food key lime pie? Because you're wide open, bitter and crusty." He snapped back and the look of confidence left Deceit's face. 

Without a moments notice, the Snake lunged forward, slamming into the shield with more force than a stampede, knocking the three back and shattering the image of the guard from Patton's hands. 

Laughing once more, he stood over them, a new spear in each hand, he put one under Logan's chin, pressing the point hard enough to draw blood. The other resided under Roman's. And he put his foot on Pattons chest, impelling it to just under rib breaking pressure. "You really thought you could beat me? You have an egotist, a robot, a child and a useless good for nothing-"

_Bang_

The spears vanished as his eyes bulged, and he gasped for air, toppling over clutching his stomach. 

Virgil strode forward, limping slightly but he kept his head up, staring Deceit in the eyes, just as he wished he could have done so many times before. 

"Get back." He ordered the other's his tone stern and cold. They nodded, scrambling to get up, to a good distance but still feeling the urge to watch. 

"You don't understand Virgil, you're just a silly little child, I'm trying to  _help_ you." Deceit wheezed, as Virgil, knocked off the stupid bowler hat, and pressed the barrel of the gun to the snakes head. "You belong with us Virgil, they've misled you, you're like u-"

" _I am nothing like you._ " Virgil's voice was deadly soft. "I haven't worked my ass off, dealing with nightmares of what _you_ did to me, trying to forget the scars _you_ left me, trying to better myself, all for you to tear me down again.  _Not this time._ _They_ love me, and I love them. You are _not_ going to ruin that again."

"You can't  _love,_ Anxiety. You're just a cowardly worryguts, you need us to help you." Deceit was weak and he knew it, manipulation was the only way he could get out of this, the metal of Virgil's gun was ever present on his head.

"I am  _not_ just anxiety. I am more than you, or wrath, or pride, _ever_ thought I could be. You backed me into a corner, you kept me down, all the fucking time." He paused for a moment. "So, D, get up." He spat, his words laced with poison.

Deceit obeyed his order, remaining silent, as Virgil kept the gun under his chin now.

A loud crack could be heard, as the anxious trait punched the other in the face, his nose most certainly crushed from the amount of forced he applied. Virgil gripped the chain around the snake's neck, the pendant digging into his palm but he didn't care.

" _That_ was for taking the necklace that Roman got me on our anniversary, the others all have one too, four of a kind." He smiled almost sadistically at the other who was nodding along now.

A dig in the stomach was next, just above where the bullet wound resided, and Deceit cried out in pain. He reached to place a hand on the injury but Virgil grabbed his wrist. 

" _That_ was for taking the watch Logan got me for my birthday, it was so I could actually notice it was four in the morning and get to sleep." 

Last but not least, he swept the other's legs out from underneath him, letting the snake crash to the ground, and his guns to phase from the mindscape.

"And _that_ was for taking the Doc Martin's that Patton got me for my first year of being with them. An anniversary of truth, something you wouldn't know anything about. You're a liar, a thief, and a petty fucking bastard, now go home before I feel the need to actually put a bullet in your skull."

Deceit nodded, and Virgil let him go, giving the Snake one last glare before turning to his friends. 

He should have learned that fake friends never stab you in the front. 

All he saw was Patton scream and Logan fire before everything went black. 

 

When he woke up everything was blurry, and his head hurt like all shit. He was on Patton's bed, as his vision came into focus, he saw all the others asleep on the couch Patton kept in his room. The mug and broken glasses had been cleared off his floor. 

Logan was leaning on his hand, propped up on the arm of the sofa, his glasses falling off his face. Roman was beside him, gripping the logical side's hand, and resting with his arm around Patton, who had his head in Roman's chest, cuddling into him. 

He smiled fondly at the three. 

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he got a good look at what he was wearing, a random purple t-shirt and a pair of somebody else's pyjama bottoms, lifting his shirt up a little he noticed the wound had been properly bandaged, considering that satin isn't the best absorbent.

His movement woke Logan, whom after placing his glasses back on his face, smiled over at Virgil, shaking the others who woke up with a start.

"Wha- Huh? Deceit!- Oh..." Roman shouted, jerking awake at Logan's contact, calming after he realised where he was, and that Patton was cuddling him. 

"Guess I'm not the only one dealing with nightmares from now on huh?" Virgil spoke shakily, his voice hoarse from just waking up and Roman glanced over at him, eyes widening. 

"Virgil! You're awake!" Patton was the first to speak, and soon they were all over at his side. 

Patton peppered his face with kisses, to which he laughed and tried to object but truthfully he was enjoying himself. Roman pulled him dramatically into his arms, pressing a firm kiss to his lips and muttering some cheesy bullshit that Virgil most definitely rolled his eyes at. Logan went last, pulling the anxious side into a hug first, before placing a gentle kiss to his lips.

"You were so brave, Virge. I don't think any of us could have done that." He pushed up his glasses, but they could all see his smile poorly hidden under a serious expression. He was genuinely proud. 

Virgil ducked his head, smiling a little. "What happened to him?"

"He attempted to stab you in the back, and Logan shot him. It went through his head, Virge, it isn't likely he'll be returning."  Roman replied, giving his hand a squeeze. 

"But won't that effect Thomas? I mean other than destroying my life, he _did_ have a purpose." The anxious trait spoke quietly.

Patton laughed softly rubbing his back soothingly. "Remember when Logan vanished, Thomas could still think. He'll still be able to lie, he'll just be a lot less inclined to."

"It's going to be alright Virgil. Like you said, he wouldn't ruin it this time." He gestured for Virgil to stand up, and pulled the anxious trait into his arms. "We won't let any of them get to you again."

Patton and Roman decided to participate also, turning it into a group hug. 

"They can't hurt you anymore, my dark knight." Roman spoke softly into his ear. 

Patton placed a kiss to his cheek. "We've got you sweetheart."

So as the tears streamed down his face, Virgil laughed, lightly and without questioning himself. " _We're going to be okay_." 


End file.
